This is a national stage application of International Application No. PCT/US2004/022837, filed Jul. 15, 2004 which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of Provisional Application No. 60/487,549, filed Jul. 15, 2003.
This invention relates to a furniture piece that is convertible into a variety of pieces, including a crib, youth bed, day bed, full-size bed, and sofa. The invention is particularly designed to be initially used as a crib, and then later converted into other furniture pieces depending upon the needs of the user. The invention is designed such that all structural components can be utilized when converting from a crib to another piece.
A child will typically outgrow a crib by approximately the age of two years. In view of the relatively short time period for using a crib, it is generally desirable from a marketing standpoint to provide a crib that can be converted into other useful furniture pieces once the child has outgrown the crib.
The prior art includes cribs with four legs in which the front panel is removable from the rest of the crib in order to form a day bed. Another prior art crib includes six legs and can convert into a day bed and a full-size bed. However, in each of these prior art cribs, at least one major structural components is discarded upon converting the crib to another furniture piece resulting in a waste of materials. Furthermore, both of these prior art cribs can be used to form only one furniture piece at a time. These prior art designs are explained in detail, infra.